(Foreign ?) tourists get a say on NZ road habits

[reality]

....dont look at the pic...may be disturbing 



Foreign drivers crash 'like rest of us'

5:00 AM Friday Sep 25, 2015

Inquest hears plea to stop blaming tourists as figures show drop in accident rate.

The wreckage of a car that hit a logging truck head-on near Tokoroa killing three occupants. Photo / Supplied

An inquest into the horrific deaths of seven tourists has heard an appeal to Kiwis to stop blaming foreign drivers for the carnage on our roads.

Newly released statistics reveal that despite public perception, the number of crashes involving foreign drivers has dipped slightly in the last decade, though the proportion of tourist crashes on our roads edged higher in the past two years.

Overseas licence holders were involved in 5.7 per cent of all fatal and injury crashes since 2010 with actual crash numbers falling slightly since 2004 - from 597 to 564 last year - despite a 25 per cent jump in tourist numbers.

The figures were revealed yesterday at a dramatic Hamilton inquest into two crashes which killed seven tourists earlier this year.

Utah tourists Tamara Garlick Barnett, and friends Mitchell Peterson and his wife, Ruth-Ann, were killed instantly when a truck T-boned their vehicle on the outskirts of Hamilton on March 11.

Tamara's husband, Richard, told police he couldn't remember the crash and pleaded guilty to three charges of careless driving causing death.

Yesterday, truck driver Timothy Manderson told Coroner Gordon Matenga he could only slam on his brakes when Mr Barnett's SUV turned into his path.

And just north of Tokoroa in February, four members of the Lee family were killed after their vehicle collided head-on with a logging truck. Warren Lee, 53, Aesoon Lee, 52, and their daughter Julia, 20, died in the crash. Julia's brother Griffin, 17, died in hospital later.

Taupo Serious Crash Unit Constable Bayley Orr said Julia had been driving in the wrong lane "for some time" before rounding a bend on State Highway 1 and crashing into a truck.

However, NZ Transport Agency regional director southern Jim Harland - who is chairman of the Visiting Drivers Project - told the coroner crash data involving foreign drivers over the past decade should counter public perceptions that crashes involving foreign drivers were on the rise.

"We've had a lot more people arriving yet [tourist] driver crashes haven't been increasing and that's important."

Although the drop in crash numbers was low, Mr Harland said he hoped it would show that tourist crashes had not spiked, despite widespread panic after high-profile tragedies over the past 12 months.

The new figures were detailed in the Overseas Driver Crashes 2015 report.

Mr Harland said three million visitors had arrived in New Zealand in the past year and numbers were expected to increase.

"Given the majority of overseas visitors will be driving a vehicle ... that will mean we will have more and more overseas drivers on our roads."

Regional crash data showed overseas drivers were much more likely to crash in tourist hot spots or rural areas - particularly in the deep south and West Coast - because there was a greater concentration of them on roads there.

Foreign drivers often sank back into their home driving behaviour when there wasn't much traffic around, Mr Harland said. "People often refer to their instinctive behaviour. If you're following another vehicle you've got a better chance of making the right decision."

Australians, Germans and visitors from the UK were the most likely to be involved in tourist crashes.

"That partly reflects their [high visitor] numbers but also indicates a failure to adapt to our conditions. Driving on the right-hand side of the road is an issue for some but it's not the primary cause."

The main causes of tourist crashes were similar to those of New Zealand drivers, he said. "They're crashing for similar reasons to you and I but whenever they make a mistake, particularly on the wrong side of the road, that gets quite a lot of attention and it causes a lot of emotion."

Foreign drivers

• 2014 fatal crashes: New Zealanders (268), overseas licence holders (16).

• 2014 injury crashes: New Zealanders (8600), overseas licence holders (536).

• Number of foreign drivers involved in crashes fell from 597 in 2004 to 564 in 2014.

• Westland has highest crash rate involving foreign drivers (38%), then McKenzie District (27%) and Queenstown Lakes (25%).

• Australians most common foreign drivers involved in crashes since 2010 (353), then Germans (285), UK (271), China (226), India (215), and US (193).

- NZ Herald

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Southland Times....

Fiordland residents fearful of driving alongside visitors

By GEORGIA WEAVER | 4:39PM - Monday, 15 February 2016


One of the two vehicles involved in a crash on the eastern side of Gorge Hill on State Highway 94
between Mossburn and Te Anau on February 2nd. — Photo: Barry Harcourt/The Southland Times.

DRIVING in the Te Anau area is becoming “very frightening” and has been identified as a significant work hazard for businesses.

Since the start of the year there have been at last seven accidents in the area, including several involving visiting drivers. Earlier in the month Chinese tourist Hongyang Guo pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving in the Invercargill District Court. The summary of facts says he was driving a rental vehicle with his wife and two children on the Te Anau-Mossburn Highway near The Key. He collided with another vehicle while overtaking a bus on a blind corner, causing the passenger to become trapped and minor injuries to the occupants of both cars.

Department of Conservation operations manager Greg Lind said staff found driving in Fiordland one of the most hazardous parts of their day because of visiting drivers.

An internal survey conducted within the department found most people found driving the most significant hazard of the job, he said.

“Almost without exception, it was the hazard of driving the the southern area.”

The same was echoed in Queenstown, he said.

“[DOC staff in Fiordland] all either had a scary moment or had to take evasive actions. It's very much in the staff's minds.”

Most people tended to switch to cruise mode when driving, which caused people to react naturally in a dangerous situation, he said.

“It's a natural reaction to do what you would do in your own country. We require them to be conscious and drive defensively,” Lind said.

“It's not that easy when you're not in your home country.”

While actions such as passing on double yellow lines was “just stupid”, other actions kick on automatically, he said.

Action Helicopters pilot Dick Deaker said it could be very frightening sharing the road with visiting drivers.

Despite having driven since he was 15, it was still made him fearful.

“Some people shouldn't be on the road,” he said.

“You've got to be defensive and think ahead — be on the ball.”

He had been to China himself and seen what the driving was like there.

“They go anywhere, it seems to be expected.”

He believed with more than 1,000 cars going through daily, the government needed to put more money into the Fiordland roads such as installing more passing lanes.

“From Glenorchy to Queenstown there are four passing lanes, but none going to Milford. That would help,” he said.

Southland police have said in the midst of Chinese New Year celebrations, which began on February 8th, there has been an increase of traffic on the roads, particularly in the Queenstown Fiordland areas.

Southland area commander Inspector Joel Lamb said as with any other major event, more police were deployed in the heavily populated areas to help keep crime under control.

There was more traffic on the road during this time but mostly visitors were behaving, he said.

“I'm not aware of any problems.”

In a statement New Zealand First transport spokesperson Denis O'Rourke says the proposed members bill to introduce a rental vehicle service assurance of the hirer's competency was imperative.

“Alarming reports of tourists driving on the wrong side of the road and overtaking on the yellow lines over the summer show the urgent need for New Zealand First's bill targeting tourist drivers.”

The party members were surprised there had not been more crashes over the summer, he says.

“Under our bill if the rental company failed to take adequate actions they could become vicariously liable for any accident caused by the hirer,” O'Rourke says.

The bill also required a minimum standard for the vehicles hired that included safety technologies and standards in accordance with existing Australian standards would be mandatory.

The party will call upon the government to adopt and enact it without delay, he says.

__________________________________________________________________________

Crashes in the Te Anau area since the start of 2016

• January 1st: Four injured when the car they were travelling in hit a bank on State Highway 94 between Te Anau and Milford Sound.

• January 1st: One flown to hospital and one taken by ambulance after their campervan crashed into a fence north of Te Anau.

• January 2nd: Four taken to Lumsden Medical Centre after two cars collided near Centre Hill.

• January 2nd: No one was injured after crash near Mirror Lakes on the Milford Highway.

• February 2nd: A Chinese national travelling with his wife and two children overtook a bus on a blind corner near The Key when he collided with another vehicle.

• February 10th: One person had minor injuries when three cars were involved in a crash on the Te Anau-Mossburn Highway.

• February 15th: One person was trapped when two cars collided near The Key.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Tourist driver causes head-on collision in Southland

 • Frustrated truck driver throws tourist's car keys over fence near Queenstown

 • Tourists spend thousands on chauffeurs to avoid driving on New Zealand roads

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/76839291

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Related threads @ XNC2:

• truckies and tourists with questionable driving skills.-

• Friends snatch foreign driver's keys after being - IOW Here we go again

[nitpicker1]

Crashes galore on death trap road
Guy Williams 09 February 2016


Three cars crashed on a dangerous tourist road near Queenstown yesterday.
Police say the crash happened on the Glenorchy-Paradise Rd about 11.30am when a vehicle failed to stop behind two others waiting at the Rees bridge for an oncoming vehicle.
Senior sergeant Ian Temple, of Dunedin, says the car hit one of the waiting vehicles, which in turn was shunted into the front vehicle.
Two of the vehicles left the scene before police arrived, Temple says.
He couldn't provide the drivers’ nationalities or say if anyone was injured.

Queenstown film producer Gary Strangman suffered a broken sternum in a head-on crash on the same road last Tuesday after his car was struck by a van being driven on the wrong side of the road.
The van’s driver, Chinese tourist Yi Zhu, 45, was ordered to pay Mr Strangman $3000 in compensation when he appeared in the Christchurch District Court last Friday.
He told media outside the court: "I am very sorry for what has happened, it was my fault."
Two weeks before the crash, Strangman told Mountain Scene the road was a potential death trap and called on Queenstown's council to seal the 10km unsealed section between the Rees Bridge and Paradise.

Read about it at
http://www.scene.co.nz/crashes-galore-on-death-trap-road/327061a1.page

PS: my Queenstowner granddaughter does gofer work for Gary Strangman film producer
 

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

I'll be down that way in 4½ weeks time.

I'll be alighting from an aeroplane at Dunners Airport, picking up a rental car, then driving to Te Anau to meet up with some people (we're all crashing HERE), then buggering off to Milford Sound for a bit of “me time” at the edge of the earth for three nights (crashing HERE) before returning to Te Anau and catching up with my friends again, then after spending a day cruising Doubtful Sound, we'll all be heading off to Wanaka for Easter weekend. On Easter Monday, we might pop over to Jackson Bay on a day-trip so we can have lunch at The Craypot, before returning to Wanaka for a final night, then I'll be driving over to Queenstown and ditching the rental, then flying back to Wellywood.

However, the Chinese hordes associated with the Chinese New Year holiday-makers should have mostly buggered off back to China by then, so hopefully “no wucking furries”.

[nitpicker1]

Selectively abbreviated

I'll be alighting from an aeroplane at Dunners Airport, picking up a rental car, then driving to Te Anau to meet up with some people (we're all crashing HERE), then buggering off to Milford Sound for a bit of “me time” at the edge of the earth for three nights (crashing HERE...
......I'll be driving over to Queenstown and ditching the rental, then flying back to Wellywood.

However, the Chinese hordes associated with the Chinese New Year holiday-makers should have mostly buggered off back to China by then, so hopefully “no wucking furries”.

Sheesh you'll be as bad as any of them other holiday makers, and the Warbirds fans seem to think they can make their cars fly

Nemmind:

I am now about 10 kms away from Dunners Airport, but I can't invite you for cheese scones these days - the best I would offer is a snack pack biscuits and cheese cos my old get up and go got up and went!  However
I would almost expect to find a package of your bakery's world famous Easter Eggs on my doorstep as you pass through...or even a couple of Crays air freighted from the Doubtful sounds while you are over there.

Did you know that my #2 daughter managed the Lakeside motels about 20+ years ago?  Can't count the times we stayed with them on our trips round the country. The then owners of the Lakeside had their own house on the grounds  and had a dogkiller cat that used to threaten our wee Foxie.

(You met both of my kids when we did our NI trip, and you took us to visit the Mt Bruce sanctuary.)

BTW
#1 daughter and her family still own the QMA at Queenstown.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

I am now about 10 kms away from Dunners Airport, but I can't invite you for cheese scones these days - the best I would offer is a snack pack biscuits and cheese cos my old get up and go got up and went!  However
I would almost expect to find a package of your bakery's world famous Easter Eggs on my doorstep as you pass through...or even a couple of Crays air freighted from the Doubtful sounds while you are over there.

Are you living in a retirement home now? 

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

(click on the picture to read the news story)

[Alicat]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77023798/rental-company-keen-to-talk-to-peeing-passengers-group

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

(click on the picture to read the news story)

I think these dirty little bastards were New Zealanders. Apart from the dangerous on the road, they're filthy little pricks. At least their reggo plate is visible. Hope they get caught and spoken to.

Nope, not Kiwis....



• Pee passengers disgust rental firm

A Frenchman rented the car, and there'll be words spoken when it's returned…

[nitpicker1]

I am now about 10 kms away from Dunners Airport, but I can't invite you for cheese scones these days - the best I would offer is a snack pack biscuits and cheese cos my old get up and go got up and went!  However
I would almost expect to find a package of your bakery's world famous Easter Eggs on my doorstep as you pass through...or even a couple of Crays air freighted from the Doubtful sounds while you are over there.

Are you living in a retirement home now? 

Sold the camp, now a tenant in my Qtown granddaughter's do-upper 3-bedroomed cottage.
Joined the Ski set ( Spending the Kids Inheritance on sports cars and luxury holidays)

Doing as little as possible but still keeping a finger on the tourism pulse.

Now back to the topic

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77023798/rental-company-keen-to-talk-to-peeing-passengers-group

[Alicat]

They were in disguise ... no berets

[Calliope]

They were in disguise ... no berets

What is the difference between a condom and a french landlord, after all they are both french letters

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Crashes galore on death trap road
Guy Williams 09 February 2016


Three cars crashed on a dangerous tourist road near Queenstown yesterday.
Police say the crash happened on the Glenorchy-Paradise Rd about 11.30am when a vehicle failed to stop behind two others waiting at the Rees bridge for an oncoming vehicle.
Senior sergeant Ian Temple, of Dunedin, says the car hit one of the waiting vehicles, which in turn was shunted into the front vehicle.
Two of the vehicles left the scene before police arrived, Temple says.
He couldn't provide the drivers’ nationalities or say if anyone was injured.

Queenstown film producer Gary Strangman suffered a broken sternum in a head-on crash on the same road last Tuesday after his car was struck by a van being driven on the wrong side of the road.
The van’s driver, Chinese tourist Yi Zhu, 45, was ordered to pay Mr Strangman $3000 in compensation when he appeared in the Christchurch District Court last Friday.
He told media outside the court: "I am very sorry for what has happened, it was my fault."
Two weeks before the crash, Strangman told Mountain Scene the road was a potential death trap and called on Queenstown's council to seal the 10km unsealed section between the Rees Bridge and Paradise.

Read about it at
http://www.scene.co.nz/crashes-galore-on-death-trap-road/327061a1.page

PS: my Queenstowner granddaughter does gofer work for Gary Strangman film producer
 

I preferred the road from Queenstown to Glenorchy when it was a gravel road, 'cause there was bugger-all traffic on it.

Ditto with the Crown Range road....when it was gravel you could travel from Queenstown to Wanaka really quickly if you knew how to drive on steep, windy gravel roads, because there was bugger-all other traffic on it. Then, it got tarsealed and hordes of tourists started driving across it slowly, and with hardly-any passing spots, you are basically stuck behind them and as a result the trip between Queenstown and Wanaka has got considerably slower.

[nitpicker1]

Re Reply #38

Then, it got tarsealed and hordes of tourists started driving across it slowly, and with hardly-any passing spots,

I remember when the Cromwell to Wanaka road was sealed, one car-width wide. No problem to pull off when you met or passed another vehicle, each could keep half on seal, half off.

them was the days

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

(click on the picture to read the news story)

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[nitpicker1]

 

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

I got my hand smacked for posting that cartoon at another group.